HOW MUCH REDEMPTION INCLUDES.
By Mrs. H. Hurd Haskell
"THE Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." His work is to restore what was lost through sin. The body made in the image of God; the right to the tree of life; communion with God, without any obscuring vail between, and the dominion of the earth, were all lost through the sin of our first parents. The decree also went forth, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." The Son of man, the "second Adam," came to restore to humanity all that they would have enjoyed if sin had never entered. This means more than many suppose; for "so long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love, would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfolding love of God." If man had never sinned, but continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, would he not have been at the present time immeasurably beyond what Adam was at the beginning? Have not all those vast opportunities been lost to humanity? It has been the work of the devil to cheat man out of these blessings. But "the Son of man was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil." And the promise reads, "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten," etc. Man redeemed will be what he would have been at the end of the thousands of years that have passed since his fall, if he had never sinned. He will not simply be what Adam was at the beginning. "All that it was possible for him to gain by a sinless life, will be given him through Christ." Man in the beginning was made a little lower than the angels; but man redeemed will be highly exalted. "The work of redemption involves consequences of which it is difficult for man to have any conception. There was to be imparted to the human being, striving for conformity to the divine image, an outlay of heaven's treasures, an excellence of power, which would place him higher than the angels who had not fallen." Every trace of the slimy trail of the serpent will be removed. The earth, which was to be subdued and replenished by man, will be restored to the perfect state to which it would have been brought in the same period of time, by man, if sin had never entered. Thus, instead of having the garden only, we will have the city, and the garden, with the tree of life in the "midst of the street of it." What man would have built about the garden to beautify it, Christ has prepared in heaven, and brings it down with the garden upon the new earth. "The redemption of our body" will be complete; for He will "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." The robe of light which enshrouded our first parents before they sinned will again clothe humanity, and they will "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." "The Spirit of Christ" through Hosea gives the pledge, "I will redeem them from death." The flaming sword will no longer separate humanity from the tree of life, but they will have a right to eat and live forever throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. What rapturous joy will fill the heart of Adam as "the Saviour leads him to the tree of life, and plucks the glorious fruit, and bids him eat"! No longer will the Father be to His people an "invisible God;" for "they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." The "first dominion" will come to the "tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion." Micah 4:8. He who conquered Satan in every conflict receives "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away." The curse of sin that now rests so heavily upon the earth will forever pass away. "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him." "The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore, humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bare the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart, and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory, and humiliate Himself, from love to man, will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer, and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance, as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song, 'Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own precious blood!'"